Bhubaneswar, May 31: Girls performed better than boys in the Plus Two examination, the results of which were announced today.

The results saw a slight dip in the overall pass percentage as compared to last year.

Higher education minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, who announced the results, attributed the dip to the stringent measures taken to prevent malpractice and reforms to prevent question leaks this time. The overall pass percentage this year is 68.36 as compared to 70.13 per cent in 2013.

A total of 3,24,461 students had appeared the examinations in arts, science, commerce, vocational and distance education streams at 1,080 centres of the state.

The girls outsmarted the boys across all streams with an overall pass percentage of 71.77, while the later recorded a pass percentage of 68.08.

As many as 1,34,315 students cleared the exam in arts, while 60,119 and 17,796 students passed in the science and commerce disciplines respectively. A total of 4,753 students passed in the vocational stream.

While the pass percentage in the arts stream was 68.19, that in the science, commerce and vocational streams were 70.13, 64.14 and 55.23, respectively.

As many as 11,778 students passed in first division in the arts stream.

In science and commerce, the numbers stood at 15,953 and 3,480, respectively.

Nayagarh district recorded the highest pass percentage in arts with 83.56 per cent and Kalahandi recorded the lowest with 45.99 per cent.

In science, Balasore topped with a pass rate of 86.17 per cent, while Nuapada fared the lowest with 40.68 per cent.

In commerce too, Nayagarh topped with 81.14 per cent, while Deogarh came last with 8.86 per cent.

The students will be given away the certificates on June 2, said council chairman Basudeb Chhatoi.At least seven colleges scored nil results. These colleges would be served a show cause notice and action will be taken accordingly, said the minister.